Most people in Turkey do not trust Erdoğan

Good people trust Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, a party loyalist said, responding to a global poll that found most people do not.

More than 600,000 people cast votes in the Spectator Index survey on Twitter, which posed the question “Do you have confidence in Turkey’s president Recep Erdoğan?” More than 74 percent of participants responded negatively by the time it ended on Wednesday.

“Good people trust Erdoğan and have full confidence in him,” Yasin Aktay, an adviser to Erdoğan in the president’s capacity as leader of the governing Justice and Development Party (AKP), said in a tweet.

Aktay went on to question Erdoğan’s detractors, as well as the Spectator Index’s motivation for publishing the survey, which was open to all Twitter users, regardless of their location or nationality.

“We know the problem of those who have not confidence in him, and we do not have a confidence with the intention of this question,” he said.

There were almost 10,000 comments on the poll when voting ended. Many people expressed loyalty and love for Erdoğan, citing his success in managing the Turkish economy and his efforts to elevate the global status of Turkey and to give a voice to the Islamic world. Others labelled him a dictator, a destabilising influence on the region and said he did not represent Muslims.

The Spectator Index has 1.7 million followers on Twitter and publishes news, statistics and opinion polls. It also offers a subscription-based daily briefing on weekdays via its website.